Purses stolen at gunpoint in La Mesa

LA MESA  Two men with a handgun and a crowbar robbed a pair of women in downtown La Mesa Wednesday night, police said.

The robbers came up from behind the women as they walked home along La Mesa Boulevard near Spring Street about 10 p.m. and demanded that they had over their purses, police said.

The women did what they were told and ran to a nearby house to call police. Officers searched with help from a sheriff’s helicopter but didn’t find the thieves.

Both robbers were described as black men in their 20s. The one who carried a pistol had a mustache or goatee and wore baggy pants and a black, hooded sweatshirt with a red California logo on the front. The other man, with a crowbar, also wore a black, hooded sweatshirt.